Caterpillar is continuing development of its Rock Header through testing of its RH55 prototype in the Hagerbach Test Gallery in Switzerland. The RH55 is designed for fast, mechanised roadway development in underground hard rock mines – to help mining companies accelerate return on investment.

“As part of the rigorous Caterpillar New Product Introduction process, our engineering team is working to validate and optimise the performance of the RH55 prototype to ensure that we deliver the machine required by customers,” Jens Steinberg, Commercial Manager of Caterpillar’s Hard Rock Cutting group, told International Mining. “When this phase is completed, we will move on to pilot machines to be evaluated in customers’ mines.”

The prototype validation process has included gathering detailed input from Caterpillar customers in many different mining districts around the world. The engineering team continues to tune performance objectives and to test in different scenarios to ensure that the RH55 will meet customers’ production expectations while meeting Caterpillar’s high standards for quality, reliability and serviceability.

The Rock Header uses Caterpillar’s Activated Undercutting Technology for efficient hard rock cutting. The design of the cutting head enables the picks to attack the rock from an optimum angle to exploit its tensile strength, which is only 10 to 20% of its compressive strength. The activation movement optimises velocity, momentum and impact of each pick – while moving the pick away quickly to minimise wear and heating. The result is reduced energy consumption and replacement cost of cutting tools.